Miss DC Inspires Area Youth to be Entrepreneurs
Ashley Boalch, a University of Maryland senior, learns value of hard work growing up in single-family home.
In 1921, the very first Miss Washington, D.C. went on to also become the very first Miss America. The 16-year-old competed against a handful of beauties to take home the mermaid trophy, given to “The Most Beautiful Bathing Girl in America.” Since then, the pageant has grown to expect more from its contestants than beauty and personality by pushing the young women who compete to be invested in their communities. This challenge came all too natural for 23-year-old Ashley Boalch—who is the current Miss District of Columbia. She served as a mentor to her younger sister and brother, growing up in a single-parent home in Silver Spring. At the age of 14, Boalch had to work to help her mom support the family. As the eldest, “I really had to step …
